The Game has Changed - Who is Writing the New Rules?

Professor John Blaxland, Fergus (Gus) McLachlan AO, Major General (Retd) and Anthony Murfett joined me on 9 March at the Future Work Summit 2022 to discuss how the game has changed and who is writing the new rules?

When this session was first imagined, our focus was very much on what was happening in the Indo-Pacific.?Vladimir Putin had other ideas and we are seeing a face-off between those who seek to throw out the Rules-Based Order which has delivered prosperity and relative peace for decades.?Putin’s move has demonstrated to the world that an investment in defence, space and cyber is no longer discretionary.?So what does this mean for Australia’s security, society and economy?

Presentations

• You can watch the presentations delivered on 9 March 2022?here.
• You can watch the Q&A recorded on 31 March 2022 here
• You can read the transcript of the panel discussion held on 31 March 2022 here.

About our speakers

Professor John Blaxland is a Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies and former Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.?

John is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy,?a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, a member of the Australian Army Journal editorial board, and the first Australian recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant.?

He holds a PhD in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, an MA in History from ANU and a BA (Hons 1) from UNSW. He is a graduate of the Royal Thai Army Command & Staff College (dux, foreign students) and the Royal Military College, Duntroon (Blamey Scholar).?

John has extensive experience in the intelligence community including as the principal intelligence staff officer (S2) for the Australian infantry brigade deployed to East Timor in September 1999, as an intelligence exchange officer in Washington DC, as Director Joint Intelligence Operations (J2), at Headquarters Joint Operations Command, as a principal author of the three-volume official history of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and a one-time official historian of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). In addition he was Australia’s Defence Attaché to Thailand and Myanmar.?

At ANU, he teaches undergraduate students “STST3003: Honeypots and Overcoats: Australian Intelligence in the World”; and "Southeast Asia's Security Choices" New Colombo Plan Mobility Course.

Fergus (Gus) McLachlan AO, Major General (Retd) is a Senior Advisor at Bondi Partners. He left the army in 2018 after a stellar 37-year career. During that time his roles included head of Modernisation and Strategic Planning, deputy chief of Staff for Plans at the HQ ISAF Joint Command in Afghanistan and chief of staff for the Office of the Chief of the Defence Force.?He retired as Commander Forces Command, leading 35,000 men and women of the ground forces.?

Gus is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of strategic planning, cultural and organisational change. His leadership roles include some of the largest and most complex teams in the public & private sectors in Australia.?

He is a leader respected for his curiosity and innovation having led an Army investigation into cyber, robotics and data analytic tools and more recently during a successful transition to the commercial and university sectors. Gus McLachlan is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School & Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership.

Anthony Murphett is the Head of Division for the Technology and National Security Division in the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. He is responsible for leading the division providing advice to government on how Australia can support the new tech frontier in areas such as quantum technologies, AI, cyber as well as the broader digital economy.?

Anthony was the Deputy Head of the Australian Space Agency. He was responsible for the performance of the organisation and had oversight of the strategy, policy and operations of the Agency. He led the formation of the Agency along with the inaugural Head of the Agency when it was established in 2018. Anthony has also undertaken a range of roles across government. This has included being the Minister Counsellor (Industry, Science and Education) at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC. In this role, Anthony's focus was on developing and implementing strategies to strengthen Australia's engagement with the industry and innovation, science, research and education systems in the US and Canada.

Prior to these roles, Anthony was the General Manager of the Growth Centres Branch within the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. His key responsibility was advising the Australian Government on the policy, design and implementation of the Industry Growth Centres Initiative.?Anthony has also worked across a number of areas within the industry and innovation portfolios within the Australian Government. These include the Australian Research Council and IP Australia (Australian Patent Office).

Anthony's educational background is in biotechnology and immunology (including a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the Australian National University). He is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has completed the Senior Executive Fellows Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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Additional Resources

• 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper
• Free Trade Agreements are here
• There Is No Liberal World Order | The Atlantic
• Director GCHQ's speech on global security amid war in Ukraine | Speech | Recording